Steamboat Springs Nordic combined skier Todd Lodwick rides up the chair lift at the Whistler Olympic Park for Friday afternoon's training round. Lodwick and his teammates on the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team, are busy preparing for their first event, the normal hill individual Gundersen, on Sunday.

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Many of the athletes taking part in Friday afternoon’s wet and rain-soaked Nordic combined training would describe the day as ugly, but after a close call on the starting bar, scary might be the preferred word for U.S. Nordic combined skier Johnny Spillane.

Johnny Spillane noticed a broken ski just before taking off for a training jump Friday at the rain-soaked Nordic combined facility in Whistler. Regardless, the team remained upbeat while preparing for Sunday's competition.